Thursday 23rd March
We’ve absolutely loved having an Enterprise and Business enrichment week! In English, the children designed their own homes and then wrote persuasively about why their home is the BEST on the market! The children were incredibly persuasive and they all made their homes sound incredibly appealing.
On Monday afternoon, we began our “Trash to Treasure” challenge were the children were tasked with designing and creating an eco- friendly toy for Hamley’s Toy Store. On Monday, the children began by thought showering their ideas and then eventually moved onto drawing their final design for their toys. The children listed the materials and equipment they would need to make their toys.
Later in the week, the children were given an afternoon to make their toys! The children were incredibly excited to bring their designs to life and work with their team mates to create the eco- friendly toys. We had such a wonderful afternoon creating the toys! I was extremely impressed with how well the children worked together; they listened to one another, supported each other and worked collaboratively to create a wonderful toy.
Take a look at the amazing toys the children in Northern Ireland class created out of recycled materials! We had robots, penguins, cars, trains, hoovers, animals and more!
Friday 3rd March
We’ve had a wonderful start to the half term and enjoyed celebrating our love of reading and books! The children in Northern Ireland class thoroughly enjoyed their story stick session on Wednesday afternoon where they worked with a grown up who is close to them to create a story stick. A story stick is simply a stick that has prompts attached to it from a story and it can be used to help retell a story. The children absolutely loved making their story sticks and they all did a wonderful job; the children were keen to retell their stories using their story sticks to their families at home!
On Thursday afternoon, we celebrated World Book Day. The children came dressed as their favourite character from a book and we began writing our class story. Although we haven’t yet finished writing our story, the children absolutely loved being creative and imaginative. It was a wonderful opportunity to work collaboratively, generate powerful language and create an interesting plot. The title of our story is “The Adventures of Red the Fox”, keep a close eye on our class page as I will be posting snippets from our story in the next few weeks!
This afternoon we finished our topic of “food” in Design Technology by making our healthy wraps. In the previous lesson, the children designed their own healthy wrap recipe that included 1 source of protein, one fruit or vegetable and one dairy/ dairy alternative. Today, the children started by discussing what we needed to do before we started making our wraps. They ensured that they had washed their hands, rolled up their sleeves and we cleaned the surfaces carefully. Then, the children used their design construct their wraps; using a knife carefully to prepare their ingredients.
The children loved making their healthy wraps and they loved eating their wraps even more! We had a great lesson and the children were all keen to do more cooking at school and at home.
Wednesday 8th February
Bonjour from Northern Ireland class! We’ve had a wonderful morning learning about the city of romance, Paris, with Mrs Cornforth. The lesson began with Mrs Cornforth reading a wonderful story called “A Lion in Paris” in French and Miss Kenyon read the story alongside in English. The children were absolutely transfixed listening to Mrs Cornforth read in French, and the children were amazed that some French words sounded the same/ very similar to some English words.
After the story, the children learned about some of Paris’ most iconic landmarks including; The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral and The Louvre. The children in Northern Ireland class were amazed to hear that around 17,000 people visit The Louvre every single day and could not believe that there was a glass floor in The Eiffel Tower.
We ended our Parisian morning with some French delicacies; brie and crepes! Most children were quite apprehensive about trying the brie, however they were all very keen to try the homemade crepes! Myself and the children learned a lot about Paris and it’s definitely somewhere we all want to visit after our lesson. A big thank you to the lovely Mrs Cornforth for making the delicious crepes and teaching us so much about Paris!
Friday 3rd February
We’ve had another busy and exciting week in Northern Ireland class! This morning we had a wonderful workshop with Hannah from the Big Foot Theatre Company, who reminded us about the importance of internet safety. In the workshop, we had to help Boo the bunny rabbit stay safe online. Some of the things we reminded Boo to do were;
1) Always ask an adult before going online
2) Always tell an adult if you are worried about something you’ve heard or seen online
3) Don’t share information about yourself online
4) Limit your time online
The children came up with amazing suggestions for Boo in order to keep himself safe online and it was clear to see that the children had a great understanding of how to stay safe on the internet. There are some wonderful stories about staying safe online and we will be reading these leading up to Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 7th February.
Friday 27th January
We’ve had another great week in Northern Ireland class this week! The children have been working incredibly hard across the curriculum but, I have been particularly impressed with the stories they have produced in English. The children in Northern Ireland class have been learning about “Rags to Riches” tales. We began by learning the tale of Dick Whittington and practiced retelling the story confidently using our story map and actions. Then, we innovated the story of Dick Whittington, using the same structure of a “Rags to Riches” tale but changing key details. After the children planned their stories using a story map, they spent three lessons writing their stories using their story maps. The children worked incredibly conscientiously in all three lessons; using amazing vocabulary, remembering correct punctuation and capital letters. I’m extremely proud of all the children in Northern Ireland class for the effort they put into writing their superb stories.
One of the reasons I believe the children in Northern Ireland class are such imaginative and creative writers is due to their love of stories. This morning they had a treat… The children had the opportunity to explore a range of brand-new books from a variety of authors! These books have been given to us by Miss Armstrong, and the children will be taking one book home a week to enjoy reading with a grown up. The children LOVED reading the books and looking at the amazing variety of illustrations. The children are eager to each take a book home and read it! I’m sure that the children will get great pleasure reading these wonderful books and the books will inspire their future writing.